Technofeudalism

What Killed Capitalism

By: Yanis Varoufakis

Narrated by: Yanis Varoufakis

In a revelatory and pathbreaking work, the #1 international bestselling economist opens our eyes to the new power that is reshaping our lives and the world . . .

Big tech has replaced capitalism's twin pillars—markets and profit—with its platforms and rents. With every click and scroll, we labor like serfs to increase its power.

Welcome to technofeudalism . . .

Perhaps we were too distracted by the pandemic, or the endless financial crises, or the rise of TikTok. But under cover of them all, a new and more exploitative system has been taking hold. Insane sums of money that were supposed to re-float our economies after the crash of 2008 went to big tech instead. With it they funded the construction of their private cloud fiefdoms and privatized the internet.

Technofeudalism says Yanis Varoufakis, is the new power that is reshaping our lives and the world, and is the greatest current threat to the liberal individual, to our efforts to avert climate catastrophe—and to democracy itself. It also lies behind the new geopolitical tensions, especially the New Cold War between the United States and China.

Drawing on stories from Greek myth and pop culture, from Homer to Mad Men, Varoufakis explains this revolutionary transformation: how it enslaves our minds, how it rewrites the rules of global power, and, ultimately, what it will take overthrow it.

©2023 Yanis Varoufakis (P)2023 Melville House

Critic reviews

“The Thucydides of our time.”—Jeffrey Sachs

Very thought provoking

Need a 2nd listen but I think he might really have something here. Which is really saying something given what this book aspires to. Accent isn't that bad as others say but it is a bit distracting.

Clear, concise analysis

A great book. Insightful, historical analysis, penned in conversational style, supported by data. Highly recommended!

Read this book if you want a competent explanation of how we got where we are financially

Karl Marx used the term "means of production" to describe the ownership and use of the resources required to produce goods and services in a society. That lends a good bit of insight as to what drives society to make massive changes dressed in ideological clothes. As humans chew through their ecosphere with the rate and underlying reasoning little different than a swarm of locusts, great insights presented by empirical people with the access to history and information required, Yanis is one such provider. He explains how capitalism, driven by financialization of production has reverted to feudalism, the ownership of where goods and services are produced and consumed. Growth and discovery are circular now. With no new worlds to conquer, mankind I’d entered into a new dark age in which we are progressively constrained and oppressed. It takes freedom and expansion of the human potential to discover and fulfill potential. That isn’t needed in a time of contraction. In this book, Janis explains how this great new oppression is unfolding. But he is only human, and after his fantastic thesis on where we as a species in a fatally injured biosphere states a way we can somehow create an egalitarian Utopia - something that we have never managed to do except through brief periods, by an entitled subset of people in general, during periods of opportunity for growth. To do that we would have to stop being people and come together as a kind of zooid.

Fascinating explanation of our present and vision for the future

By writing this book to his late father, the author invests it with a casual, intimate warmth that makes the content a pleasure to listen to.

A Reminder That We’re All Slaves To “The System”

The idea that we are now working in the Techno-Company Store (or are serfs in the Cloud Fiefs) has a lot of truth.
I don’t get the author’s celebration of the Soviet system which was an awful authoritarian regime.
I also thought the author puts too much faith in humanity’s goodness when he lays out his techno-socialist utopia plan.
I guess I’m too much of a cynic!
All and all, well worth the listen.

Engaging Education

I bought this on a whim, and I’m glad I did.

This should be recommended for anyone who wants to be knowledgeable enough to take full advantage of our current economic atmosphere and improve their life.

This is a well explained view of our present and likely future.
Finance and economics may be dry subjects, but the way the book is narrated makes it easy to stay interested from beginning to end.
Several times I found myself staying up a little bit later or staying in the car just a few more minutes to finish a passage.

One of the best economics books I’ve ever read

I’m a big fan of Varoufakis and this book was a piercing analysis about our current deranged economic and geopolitical system. The scales will fall from your eyes. Read this. Now.

Insightful

Wonder why congress is trying to dismantle TikTok? It’s the war of the cloudalists. This book is a very good, clear cut primer on our current situation

Feudal Relationships have returned to our economy with a vengeance.

I am not sure that I agree with Varoufakis’ claim that we are now in a new feudal age where organized capital is becoming purely rent seeking through the technological innovations of social media data mining, and information extraction. He is onto something though, and it is disturbing.

Cloud Serfs

I really appreciated how Yanis explained the concept of technofeudalism and how we turned into cloud serfs. I sort of got lost in the details of his proposed solutions but understood them at a high level. I would need to buy the book as it was a little difficult to follow the audio book without full concentration (ie listening while on a treadmill)